Systems in a Mad New World
by DarkMysticblade
Summary: Waking up one day to find yourself in the body a child is unpleasant. Waking up in Konoha and with a mysterious Kekkai Genkai could be much worse. OC SI starting pre-series with video game elements.
1. Waking Up

I am indeed shameless. I felt like writing a OC fic and I'd seen an interesting set of mechanics in a webcomic called 'The Gamer', so I decided to make an fic using those mechanics. The Gamer is a pretty good read if you feel like it, but you won't need to read it to understand this fic. Only if you feel like more of this.

* * *

><p>"Eh? What's the time?" I sleepily think to myself, rolling over to look at my bedside.<p>

But it's not my bedside. Waking up somewhere mysterious is more than enough of a jolt to wake me up.

I try to gather my breath and and get up. Looking around, it's a fairly small sterile room with little in it. There's a table off to my side with a full glass of water. There's a man watching me and after he sees me noticing him, he nods and leaves the room.

He was a rather peculiar looking fellow as well. His attire was the standard attire one would expect from a doctor or nurse but the thing that struck me was his purple hair. Normal eyes, normal clothing but odd hair. It was an interesting contradiction.

The door opens and the man from earlier returns with an old man. He was a fairly short man by my standards, but I could still feel a certain feeling of power coming from him. He had a rather strange hat and was wearing robes with symbols on them. I couldn't say what those symbols were for sure but they looked like kanji. If they were, this could mean some very confusing things.

"Good morning, sir." I say, being polite. I don't even know if it is morning though.

"No need to worry and it is afternoon." the old man replies with a knowing smile on his face.

"Sorry for being so direct, but where am I?" I ask.

"You are in Konoha General Hospital, young man." the old man replies.

Konoha? Pull the other one, it has bells on it.

"Why would I be in Konoha General Hospital?" I ask, confused as well.

"It might have something to do with being found floating in a stream half dead nearby with an injured leg." the old man replies, steadying his gaze on me.

Why would I be floating half dead in a river? I didn't even know there was a river nearby my place.

"I really don't why or how I got there though. Sorry to ask this so abruptly, but who are you?" I ask, trying to puzzle out my situation.

"You don't recognise the Sandaime Hokage?" the other man asks, raising his eyebrows at me.

A second look back at the old man and it's all starting to make a horrible kind of sense. I am talking to the Sandaime Hokage in Konoha. I don't even know why I got here, but I am here now.

"It is strange, but understandable. He is very young and perhaps he doesn't remember seeing me anywhere." The Sandaime tells his aid.

Very young? I'm 16. Not what'd you would call 'very young'. I begin to try and sit up but I notice something horribly wrong.

I'm not myself anymore. I'm short and my limbs are very small in comparison to what they used to be. I'll need to check later but this is starting to look really bad. I don't want to be caught out in Konoha as a 10 year old, damn it!

I look up again trying not to express my frustration outwardly, but I can see that they're well aware something is wrong.

"What are you planning on doing when you're out of hospital, young man?" the Hokage asks.

I can't really say anything. What would a 10 year old even do in Konoha? You could study as a ninja but I don't know when that starts even if I know the end-date.

"I don't know, sir." I respond honestly. What could I do?

"How old are you?" the Hokage continues.

"I'm not sure. My memories are pretty fuzzy." I reply once more.

The Hokage looks me over once more and I take the time to check myself once again. I'm at the same height I was when I was in the later years of primary school, but otherwise I look like a child version of adult me. Same build, same natural hairstyle. I'll hope it doesn't take too long to get used to being a kid again.

"How would you feel about studying at our ninja academy, young man?" the Hokage finally offers after a brief silence.

"Why would I want to be a ninja?" I ask, confused once again. Why would he offer this opportunity to an unknown child?

"I can tell when an amateur spy is trying to get into the village. I'm not getting that feeling from you. Ninja can graduate at 12 and are treated as adults are. You'd receive a stipend each month and you'd be allowed to stay in your own apartment." the Hokage offers. I really can't argue with that.

"Alright. When would I start?" I ask.

"The new school year is starting in 2 weeks. If you're able to get on your feet by that point, I'm sure you'd be able to start with the new class." the Hokage offers.

"Well, it seems like a good offer to me. I accept." I nod with a slight smile on my face. Things are finally going my way after a confusing start to this whole debacle.

That joy is suddenly ruined by a strange blue box popping up.

"You have enrolled at Konoha Ninja Academy."

* * *

><p>After his declaration, the Hokage left and the other man just ran a few tests before leaving me in the room. This left me to deal with the apparently invisible box trying to shove itself into my face.<p>

It was a really strange box. It was a pale blue and it glowed but not enough to be irritating. Much like the back-light on a TV. The colour and light on this thing was perfectly distributed and when I turned to the side to if I could see from another angle the box followed my line of sight. Irritating and highly artificial.

I reached out and tried to touch the box. When I touched the blue part of the box, the thing disappeared. I looked around this time and it seemed to be gone.

Why would a box like that suddenly appear in my face? It was like a prompt in a video game, and an irritating prompt at that. My life is not a video game and would never would be.

"You expect me to think of my life as a game, box? Want me to open up some menu's-" I get interrupted by a new box. I have a feeling I'm going to be hating boxes soon enough.

The options presented to me are really nothing out of the ordinary if you're a game. We've got an inventory tab, a character tab, a skills tabs and many other loveable tabs. More curious tabs include things like 'Settings' and 'Help'. As a man who cares little for instruction manuals, I decide to tap 'Settings' first. It feels a bit like using a touch screen with you hand getting stopped by some strange invisible force.

After hitting Settings, another menu opens up in front of the old one. This one has a bunch of words on my left with a bunch of option boxes on my right. Heading down from the top, they are, respectively, 'Difficulty', 'Language', 'Music', 'Subtitles'. Not as many options as I'd hoped but I guess you can't really have text speed here.

'Difficulty' had only one box to it's right that wasn't '?' and that was 'Normal'. Pity about the lack of 'Easy' if this is going to be my life, but I'll live.

'Language' had plenty of options. I'll just leave it on this lovely 'English' setting, thank you very much.

'Music' simply had an 'On' and an 'Off' option. I'll keep this on, but I'm ready to mute whatever music I hear. Gotta give this a chance.

'Subtitles' once again had a ton of languages. While it could be interesting to switch subtitles to a different language, I'll just keep it on 'English' for now.

While the options are helpful, there really isn't much to do. Rather than checking help, I decide to check the other menus, just so I have some context to put 'Help' into. The big ones are 'Character', 'Skills', 'Inventory' and 'Quests'.

Heading into 'Character', I come across a lovely 3D model of myself. Makes me look pretty shrimpy but there's a good deal of information on the side. A real lifesaver on the right is my age and date of birth. Age 8 and being born on the 12th of July is very workable.

Just below that is a listing of stats. This seems to be using the SPECIAL system with 'Strength', 'Perception', 'Endurance', 'Charisma' ,'Intelligence', 'Agility' and 'Luck'. The numbers on the other hand give me a feeling this isn't a score of 10. Strength of 7, Perception of 8, Endurance of 6, Charisma of 7 ,Intelligence of 8, Agility of 6 and Luck of 5. For now, I'll have to say that's good.

Backing out and heading into 'Skills', I see a few things, but far less than I was expecting. The three skills I see are 'Communication', 'Composure' and 'Analytics'. All of them have ranks of D. I was expecting numbers but ranks are a lot easier for me to put into context. Huzzah.

After not getting rank D sarcasm, I head for the inventory page. I'm wearing two items, 'Hospital Gown Torso' and 'Hospital Gown Legs'. Aside from that, there was a variety of body slots, including 2 ring fingers, a cape slot and a necklace slot. Doubt I'll be filling these all out soon. There are some stats down at the bottom, but they don't mean much to me now.

Going into 'Quests', I see a box that is pretty much empty. I have two tabs here, 'Quests' and 'Plot'. The quest tab is brighter than the plot tab, so I can assume it's selected at the moment. Tapping 'Plot' gets me a box within the box. Opening it up, the box is just a summary of what's happened so far with me agreeing to start training as a Ninja at the Academy. I'll have to keep an eye and see if it notices anything I don't.

Finally heading to Help, I tap it and I see a box pop up.

"Would you like to activate context sensitive help?"

...Sure, let's go with the 'Yes' button that's just beneath this question rather than the 'No' button on it's right.

"You have activated context sensitive help?"

I try tapping 'Help' again trying to get to some actual information.

"Would you like to deactivate context sensitive help?"

...No, I would not. I'm suddenly very disappointed with this help system. With some luck though, it might explain what stats do.

Heading back into the character tab, I tap and hold 'Strength'. Nothing happens. I try to hold down 'Luck' now. Nothing happens either.

This whole thing just got a lot more painful.


	2. New Town, New People

A week has passed since I arrived in Konoha.

I'd like to say it was a dramatic week full of new discoveries, but aside from trying figure out the new system I'm stuck with, nothing much has really happened. Some nurses have come by and I had to suffer through hospital food, but that's a story that shall be reopened never again.

One of the nurses did mention earlier today that a team of genin would be coming to pick me up and show me to my new apartment. Sure hope I don't have to do that as a genin.

The door opens and 5 people come in. I recognise one of them as a nurse, but the other four are new. Three kids and an adult leads me to believe this is my escort. There's boy with spiky hair, a girl with a smile, another boy looking bored and a rather notable jounin adult. Thus they become Spike, Peppy, Gloomy and Sir. I'm not going to mouth off a jounin at this point.

"Hey, you the kid who needed a guide around the village?" Spike asks.

"Yes, that's me. When do we leave?" I respond.

"Guess we're leaving as soon as you get signed out at the front counter. Come on!" Spike continues, gesturing for me to follow him.

Hopping off the bed and following him, the team and I go down to the reception office. After going up to front counter and just going through some paperwork, we're off. I was led through that paperwork and I doubt I'm going to remember any of it.

Heading down the streets, Konoha looks a lot like I had imagined it to be. There's a multitude of stands selling a variety of things on both sides of the path and people are milling around. Food seems to be the main thing sold around here but the lines don't look so long. Guess it isn't lunch hour just yet.

We come to a sudden stop outside of an apartment as I'm looking around. I hadn't noticed it to be an apartment because the apartment's I'm used are a lot bigger than this 3 story building in front of me. The building doesn't really stand out, but the sign is nice and obvious. 'Konoha Shinobi Quarters'? Guess it's what I'm calling home for the future.

'Huh, isn't this the ninja heavy part of town?" Peppy asks her teacher.

"It is. A good deal of ninja equipment stores are in this part of town and the Hokage tower isn't far from here. It's a long story." their teacher responds.

"Did they give you my key when they passed me off onto you?" I ask, not really wanting to hear this story now.

Gloomy just passes the key along to me with a grunt. I respond with a grunt in kind and take a quick look at the key. 303 is printed on it. I'd take a look up but I doubt I'd be able to see anything of my new joint.

"That should be it. I guess you can leave now?" I tell them. I don't need a babysitter to walk me up the stairs, seriously.

"Can't do that. We've got to make sure the door's working, hey?" Spike responds jokingly. Don't use up your good karma, friend.

Just shaking my head, I begin to head into the building. Inside, it's a normal building that seems to be made out of wood like a good deal of buildings around here. There's a few people inside, few of which nod and smile. I reply in kind and continue up the stairs. Not too touchy, not too cold so far.

Arriving at 303, I jam the key into the lock, and it opens without much resistence. Turning my head to the genin team, I raise my eyebrows.

"This enough for you to report back?" I say, not really wanting to let other people into my new house.

"Mission complete team. They'll send someone here next week to show you the way to the academy." their teacher replies, still calm as ever.

"Thanks. Is that all?" I ask.

"It is. Good bye." He replies in kind.

With a final nod, I close the door and collapse on the very convenient couch provided inside. Getting up and moving after so long is more tiring than I thought. Since I have the time now, I decide to do a quick check of my 'Skills' again. Last time I gained skills, there was no prompt telling me about them. Tapping a few buttons, I get to the 'Skills' tab once again, before getting a massive wall of text shot out at me.

Skimming through it revealed a few good points but in an overly enthusiastic tone. Skills were obtained and levelled by doing things, and they were invisible until the first time you did them. Levelling a skill to C-rank or higher nets you stat bonuses and boost the ability of that skill. Discover new things and discover strength beyond belief!

Ugh, now I'm getting infected by the thing's enthusiasm. That explanation aside, I'd picked Rank D Persuasion. I didn't think a failed attempt to do something would give me bonuses, but cheers to that. Seems like I'll be picking up a lot of different skills at the Academy, at the rate this is going.

Moaning aside, I'm not entirely sure what I have to do now aside from get strong and live through the plot. I'll admit I had stopped paying attention to Naruto at some point because of other things, but I still knew a fair bit and had my guesses. I didn't really care to try messing around with the plot aside from the obvious 'stop Sasuke from running away oh no!' plot. I'll admit I liked Sasuke before he got his seal. He was the best of the students, the one who blew fireballs at people and died for his friend. Kind of hard to shake that impression off.

Getting my mind back on track, I can only say there's two real goals for me as is. Survive the plot of Naruto and get any information I can on this bloodline and my appearance in this world. I'd say this world and this system have probably been done by the same person. Someone who needs to get punched in the face. Who would just shove a dude into a kid's body?

* * *

><p>The next day comes by and I'm up by 7. It's good to know that this apartment was stocked with quite a bit of furniture. This apartment almost feels like a motel, but I'm going to be in here for much longer than a road trip.<p>

A lot more awake and less tired now, I realise I haven't bought any clothes. The hospital gown I came in is not exactly appropriate wear for class. I open the drawers in my bedroom and lo behold, there's a set of clothing with a note.

"Remember to return your hospital clothes to the hospital when you get back - Sandaime Hokage"

Thanks, old man. Should have had more faith in his planning skills.

Changing into the comfortable combo of black shorts and a green shirt, I set aside the hospital gown. I'm not sure how long I'm been in that thing, and I'm not sure I care.

Checking back in the drawers, and there's another parcel attached. Inside this parcel is some money. I have no clue how much 50,000 Ryo is, but I'm going to assume it's a good deal. Grabbing 10,000 Ryo, I quickly hide away the rest of it inside the draw. Now that I have something worth stealing, I'm going to have to lock the door.

Heading outside to try and find something to eat, I stumble upon something I didn't want.

It was Might Guy looking like he'd just come back from a morning run. He had a towel slung over his shoulder but he still looked like he was full of energy. I'd try and hide as soon as possible, hungry or not, but he saw me before I could escape.

"YOSH! Good morning! How are you doing this youthful morning?" He says, with much joy in his voice.

"Um, well, thank you very much?" I can only respond in some state of shock.

"Are you my newest neighbour?" Guy asks, still far too happy.

"I, well I'm 303 so maybe?" I ask, beginning to edge backwards a bit.

"Good to see you up so early then! My residence is 302!" Guy says, giving me a sparkling smile.

"Er, well, I'll just be on my way then. I haven't had breakfast yet..." I ask, trying to get down the stairs while keeping as much distance between Guy and I as possible.

"Well, I'm more than happy to treat my new neighbour out to breakfast!" Guy exclaims pulling the nice guy pose on me. I'm going to go blind at this rate, with all those shiny teeth glinting in my eyes.

"Well, sure. I guess..." I respond. I don't think I can get out of this as much as I want to.

"Excellent! I'll be just a moment. Wait for me downstairs!" he says before dashing into his apartment.

I just let out a breath and start heading downstairs. Why did I have the luck to get set up next to Guy of all people? I would've preferred a normal neighbour, even with his skill. Still, might as well get a tour around the place while I'm getting dragged around. After a few moments downstairs, Guy is quick to arrive.

"Hello again! I forgot to ask you for your name earlier!" Guy says. I realise now that nobody's used my name for a while. Nobody's asked either. It's too unlike the names here as well. It would definitely invoke some questions if I used it here. Think, brain! What's a good name?

"I'm Shoryuu Kannagi. And you are?" I respond, settling on my new name.

"Ah, my apologies! I forgot to tell you my name in my excitement! I must introduce myself to 100 new people day..." he began to rant before I decided enough was enough.

"I'll just have to call you Green, if I can't get a name." I let out.

"Might Guy is my name!" he responds, snapping out of his rant.

"Alright, you lead the way then. I don't know anything around here." I say, getting up.

* * *

><p>Turns out Guy knows the area pretty well. I thought someone like him would be too obsessed with training to know the area, but he seems pretty well-known and loved around here. I can sort of get why too, since he bought me some free breakfast and showed me around the local markets. Nice guy, but I don't think I could get used to his enthusiasm.<p>

After getting a few pointers to of the area, Guy ran off to the Hokage's Tower. No clue what he's doing, but I've got a free week so best to try some things out. The big thing to do this week is to reach C rank in something and grab as many new skills as I can. Though I wouldn't turn down seeing one of the main cast. That could be a big thing.

After coming up with a rough plan, I decide to head down to a local library. If there's one place that has a ton of knowledge, it's a library. I can't be certain whether just learning about these skill will grant me them or I'll actually need to do them, but it's something worth checking.

* * *

><p>Now I'm going through my third book, but I've only gotten one skill so far. "Reading". I'd assume it's something too basic to need a skill, but it's there and at Rank D. I went through a book on gardening and blacksmithing. I'm avoiding books that focus on ninja things since I'll be grabbing those in the Academy anyway.<p>

I've just finished up my third book on fishing to no reward. I head over back to the bookcase to return it when I see a flash of pink pass behind a bookcase. I slot the book back where it belongs and I begin to follow the pink thing.

Pinky goes for a seat and begins to read her book before I realise who it is. I didn't expect to run into an 8 year old Sakura Haruno here in the library. I honestly should have expected it with her being top but I forgot about her. She's not a very significant character in my eyes. More intriguing is the fact that she's holding a book on what seems code breaking. One only meant for non-ninjas like the current version of myself, but it seems to be what could be the start of a code-breaking skill.

Pushing aside my worries, I head over her. She looks up to me and seems a bit scared of me. She's fairly short for age and I'm fairly tall for mine with an evil looking nose. A quick smile is put up to try and stop her from worrying but to no avail.

"Hey, where do you find the books on code-breaking? I've been looking for something like that. Can you show me where you found it?" I figure a request for help is probably my best bet. Making me look a bit more helpless is going make me look less dangerous.

She just squeaks and points towards a certain bookcase and gestures up before hiding her face behind her book again. Plan not successful, sad to say. I wonder how the Academy will react to me if Sakura gave me this kind of reaction?

Heading over to the bookcase and where she gestured, I'm lucky enough to find some books on code-breaking. Some of them are duplicates, but I figure 'Code Breaking - Code Broken' is a good start as any right.

I grab a seat and begin to read through it.

* * *

><p>After my day at the library, I head to grab some groceries and then head back to my place. Arriving at my house, I decide to check what skills I've picked up. I open up the menu. Where did that second one come from? I get why I've picked up Code-Breaking but the other one...<p>

What did I do to unlock Deception?

* * *

><p>Give me a shout if you want me to make a character page. I'd also like to know if setting out any SPECIAL readings going downwards would be fine. I feel like it's setting you up for disappointment if I do it that way by making the slider on the side imply there's a lot.<p> 


	3. Free Power at your Local Academy

After a week in the library, I think I've picked enough general knowledge on this world and it's history to fit in well enough when I'm in the academy. Too bad I didn't really accomplish much else there. No skills were gained and Sakura is still too shy to talk to me. Time's up and I can scratch that path off for now.

While it's true I didn't accomplish much at the Library, I did manage to get Analytics up to Rank C when I was trying to figure some things about Guy. I was pretty surprised when that happened because not only did it give me a message but it gave me a 'technique' as well as the promised stats. I picked up an extra point in perception, but I still have no clue what that stat does.

After I unlocked this technique, another menu was added to the big menu from earlier. As you'd expect, it's called 'Techniques'. Right now there's only one skill on the list. 'Scan' with a cost of 0 Chakra. Good thing it's free, since my character screen still doesn't say anything about chakra. I don't think I can actually use it until I get the prerequisites for it which are hopefully in the academy.

Scan itself is an interesting duck. The only thing I have to do is think to myself 'activate scan' and a window appears whatever I'm looking at. These windows have the person's name and rank if I know them, as well as some information about their stats. Although, it seems that if a person is much stronger than me, I can't get any information on them. All the numbers on Guy's windows are '?'. I don't even know if that means his stats are below 100 or it's just a generic missing number. Until I can get a look at something like a tailed beast or something else brokenly powerful, I'm not going to know either.

Back on track with Sakura, I have her stats.

Strength - 5

Perception - 7

Endurance - 6

Charisma - 6

Intelligence - 10

Agility - 6

Luck - 6

While it speaks fairly well of me, I don't know much of a difference 1 point is between two people. I can only really use this for comparison's sake, but it works. There is far too much I don't know here. Luckily, I have 4 years to figure this out. Watch me fail to do this until I'm 16 and on the brink of death.

* * *

><p>It's morning here and I've finished up breakfast here. I'm just waiting for my escort to the academy to arrive. I'm waiting downstairs in the lobby when a pale silver haired man arrives.<p>

"Good morning. Are you the new student who needed a guide?" Mizuki says, walking up to me.

I remember Mizuki alright. I've read the first few chapters of the manga multiple times and my experience with the anime only went into the chunin exams arc. I've also heard something about him working for Orochimaru, but that could just be fanfiction.

"Yes I am. I'm guessing you're my guide?" I ask. Even if he is planning on betraying the village later, doesn't mean I can't use him as a guide. Hell, he's probably one of the best guides I could get. This gives me a chance to get to know a teacher before plunging into the deep end.

"You're right. With that kind of initiative, I'm sure you'll do well at the academy." Mizuki says. Glad to live up to your expectations, I guess?

"Thanks. We going to get going now?" I reply.

* * *

><p>Having arrived at the Academy, I have to admit I'm little surprised. I'd always gotten the impression that it was on the small side and pretty old. It was actually pretty big and it had plenty of things set up outside. To be honest, I'm not sure what I was expecting.<p>

Right now, I'm waiting in front of a class. I'm with Mizuki from earlier and we're just waiting for the rest of the class to trickle in. I'm guessing that Mizuki is teacher here. While I'm on this topic, I forgot to scan him earlier. It's just one word through my head.

But all I get to see is the same '?' I saw from Guy. Well except for his Luck of 3. Sucks to be him, I guess.

"Settle down everyone. We have a new student here." Mizuki says, getting the rest of the class to be quiet.

The class seems to be the same year that the heroes were in. The only reason I'm saying that is the little group of Sasuke, Ino and Sakura seems to formed up the back. Ino seems to have claimed the seat next to Sasuke today. I can still remember that little scene with the fighting for Sasuke's seat, I guess. Mizuki nudges me forward at this point.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Shoryuu Kannagi. It's nice to meet you?" I say. I never said I was good at introducing myself or with kids. I might need some more points in Charisma honestly...

The response to me is lukewarm at best honestly speaking. No whispered comments, interested looks. It's like they honestly don't care I'm joining. I don't know whether to be happy or sad.

Mizuki gestures me to take a seat. There's still a few open seats in the class, but unless I felt like taking the empty corner up the back, I'm stuck with someone. Empty back corner it is.

I take out everything I need and prepare for the lesson. The class begins to fade into their work as Mizuki begins a lecture on the founding of Konoha. Did I even need to study earlier for this?

* * *

><p>Now that Mizuki's finished extolling the virtues of Senju Hashirama, my mind snap awakes. I really hope I don't have to endure this for the entire year. I was hoping for more combat skills, but I'll just have to wait.<p>

Class is out for lunch now. Most people have split off into their own groups. The fields we're allowed out onto at lunch are fairly big. I've already lost the three from earlier and I have no clue where they went. Most of these kids have already started their own games. I've been left out. I might even shed a tear.

I decide to take residence under a shady tree. The sun is a murderous thing and the heat in Konoha is not something you can easily shrug off. It's pretty humid here. I hate humid. This better not be autumn otherwise I'm going to be spending a lot of time finding a way to cool down.

Hearing a rustle from a branch above, I take a look up. It is the mysterious missing Sasuke Uchiha. I suppose it's one way of dodging his fanbase.

"Hi. Is it comfortable up there?" I ask.

"...More comfortable than with those girls." Sasuke lets out after a bit.

"Friends of yours?" I ask, once more.

"Don't even joke about that." Sasuke shoots down with a glare.

I suppose this a good as any to take a scan of him.

Strength - 9

Perception - 10

Endurance - 8

Charisma - 5

Intelligence - 9

Agility - 11

Luck - 4

I'm really outclassed here, huh? Good thing he's terrible with people, otherwise I'd literally be worse than him. Still, I can use this to try figure out the value of one point. Is it a slight advantage or is it a bigger difference? I'm guessing at this level it's a big difference.

I'm guessing too many things.

Sasuke suddenly flinches and goes quieter than he was before. I know, I'm impressed too. But I can see why with a group of girls approaching. There's about 4 of them there and I can only assume that is part of Sasuke's legendary fan club. The real reason he left Konoha. A purple haired girl is the first to take the lead.

"Hey, new kid! Have you seen Sasuke anywhere?" She asks. Thanks for your concern, brat.

"Shoryuu and who's Sasuke?" I ask, tilting my head slightly and putting on a show.

With a dismissive snort, she leads and takes the other girls away with her. Student of the year, I tell you. Sasuke lets out a sigh and seems to relax in his tree.

"Dodging these girls?" I ask, smirking.

"Thanks. I don't have time to waste with those fools." Sasuke grumbles out.

I begin to open up the menu to see if I've picked up anything of late and lo behold, I have 2 messages waiting.

"Your Deception skill has been raised to Rank C. You have gained one point of Intelligence."

"Your Composure skill has been raised to Rank C. You have gained one point of Charisma."

Sweet. Path to power, here I come hobbling down. Checking my character tab, my current stats are as follows.

Strength - 7

Perception - 9

Endurance - 6

Charisma - 8

Intelligence - 9

Agility - 6

Luck - 5

Evidently, I am the smoothest talker in town. Well, more so the playground. Both Mizuki and Guy have higher Charisma stats than me. Exact values are another mystery. I know I can see stats up to 5 points higher than my value in that area though, thanks to Sasuke. I really need to try and fix that speed and stamina issue though. Right now it looks like I'm going to be able to make a good first strike but nothing more.

"Hey Sasuke. You know where I can go to catch up on Taijustu practice?" I ask him. If he doesn't have the info, I'm going to have to ask the teachers.

"We have taijustu classes later on in the afternoon. You'll be better off than some people anyway." Sasuke responds. I don't know about that better off part considering I'm pretty much on par with Sakura for taijutsu stats...

At the very least, I can get some practice in the afternoon. I might lose horribly but this class is almost guaranteed to give me some new skills. It would be really nice if 'Punch' and 'Kick' were different skills so I could grab more stats but it's mostly likely going to give me 'Taijutsu'. Still seems like it could give some strength, endurance or agility.

* * *

><p>Lunch is over and everyone's back in the classroom. I guess making sure everyone's here is pretty important with valuables like clan heirs in these classes. Wouldn't want any special students to go missing.<p>

...That seems far too likely with Danzo and his Root around. I really wonder how he managed to get the Hyuuga and Aburame into his program. Does this village just have spare kekkai genkai wielders lying around? I don't think I want to really know.

* * *

><p>It didn't take too long to get everyone out into the training area for taijutsu. We're just in a hall with some cushioned mats set out. That's a slight reassurance if any. Some of the other classes seem to be here and we total around 50 people. I can also see the entire rookie whatever.<p>

"Okay, everyone remember how this works? I'll be showing some basic combat techniques and then we'll be trying to apply that technique to a proper spar. I'll set you up for some single matches with the victory condition of first to three clean hits." Mizuki explains.

Works for me. I don't actually know much about fighting, but I can learn. The only problem here is how much I'm expected to already know coming in here. Am I expected to know how to do things like throw a punch?

"Today, we're going to learn how to hold your knuckles when doing a basic punch" Mizuki says cheerfully, to the joy of the rest of the class.

...What did they do last year then?

* * *

><p>I'm fine with learning how to punch. I'm actually willing to take Mizuki's words here and I don't feel like being a stubborn child. I'm quick to pick this up but I'm not the first. Would you really be surprised to find out Mr. Genius Sasuke was the first to figure this out? He's pretty good at copying people. I needed it explained.<p>

Right now, Mizuki's pairing people together for the singles spars. Of note is the Ino vs. Sakura and the fact that they seem to be keeping the boys and girls away from fighting each other. I'd forgotten that the academy did that and now I need to laugh at the girls when they start doing their flower arrangement classes. Although, I don't know what the guys do while the girls are doing flowers so I don't have the right to laugh yet. Hard to be more pointless than flower arrangement.

"Shoryuu Kannagi will fight... Naruto Uzumaki for match 6." Mizuki says.

Well, this is an interesting curveball. I didn't expect to be fighting Naruto or even getting into contact with him this early in the series. There was some special circumstances around him, I think, but I can't remember them. Might just be thinking of something. I take a quick scan.

Strength - 7

Perception - 5

Endurance - ?

Charisma - 7

Intelligence - 5

Agility - 7

Luck - 10

Looks fine except for that crazy luck and endurance. This means his endurance has to be higher than 11. Good thing this match is a lot more lopsided to fit me. Perception is likely going to affect accuracy in battles, and I've got 4 points there over him. A battle can't be determined by stats though, so it's all in the air.

Mizuki continues to read out the rest of matches. He's got about 20 more matches to read off so this gives me the time to investigate the rest of the year. We've Ino and Sakura still watching Sasuke, Sasuke being a loner and try to put some distance between him and some girls, Shikamaru and Choji sitting together, Hinata in a corner, Kiba with some others, Shino standing away from most of the year. That just leaves Naruto who's gone missing while I was looking over the rest of the class.

"Hey! New kid, you'd better get ready to face Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage!" He got behind me.

"First blood to you, I suppose. You've already killed my eardrums, almighty ninja." He's yelling right into my ear as well.

"Huh? What's that suppose to mean? Are you admitting I'm awesome?" Naruto asks, blushing a little and scratching his neck.

"If you feel like taking it that way, certainly so." I'm not letting him annoy me.

"Wait, what's that suppose to mean?" Naruto says as he develops a confused look on his face.

I just have to laugh a little at his expression before moving away before he kills my ears again. By now, most of the match ups are sorted. Mizuki, and the other teacher who I hadn't noticed before, clear out some room to have two matches going on at once. She's a female teacher. No clue who she is beyond that. Sasuke passes by me since he's up for the first match with the female teacher. On his way by, he slips me a message.

"You're meant to be waiting with Suzume-sensei." Sasuke says before entering the arena over there.

I've got a name now for that teacher, I guess. Seems like I'm also expected to refer to teachers as sensei. There's been a complete lack of honorifics used so far, so I'm a little surprised to hear this. Might have something to do with my language choice.

Sasuke's fighting some kid. A quick scan reveals he's a nobody called Akira.

Strength - 6

Perception - 6

Endurance - 6

Charisma - 5

Intelligence - 5

Agility - 7

Luck - 5

He's almost completely generic. Loses out even to me in nearly everything except agility. Sasuke's going to destroy this guy.

My predication doesn't seem very off from the first few seconds of the fight. Akira goes for a first strike but he misses Sasuke and gets punched in the chest real quick. This fight is almost like it's custom built for Sasuke. It's all about hitting your opponent and not getting hit. His perception and agility are too high for him to lose this match.

My predication isn't off. It takes two more stumbles from Akira to Sasuke to pounce on him twice. Unlucky fellow, fighting what's probably the top in the class for this part of testing.

Next fight I'm seeing is actually Hinata against Sakura. I've already seen Sakura's rather middling stats. She should be somewhat okay for this but I suspect Hinata is much better. A quick scan affirms those suspicions.

Strength - 8

Perception - 9

Endurance - 8

Charisma - 6

Intelligence - 8

Agility - 12

Luck - 4

That's a monstrous agility stat, if I ever saw one. She's literally doubling me when it comes to agility. It does make sense though. If the Hyuuga style is based on light hits and speed, logic follows they'd be fast and good at hitting things.

The fight is also very quick. This match might be even more lopsided than the previous one, but it isn't as quick as the last one. Neither of them are exactly the most decisive so it takes some time for Hinata to finish off Sakura, 3 - 0. This means I'm up.

Heading into the fighting area, I can certainly see Naruto is all fired up. He's standing legs spreaded and fists in front of him. He's not even holding his fists right though. If his technique is looking so terrible already, it's going to be an even quicker match than I expected.

Taking a fencers stance, I stand facing him with my side forward. These sparring matches are all about a clean hit. Taking a fencer's stance makes me less vulnerable and makes my profile smaller.

He rushes in and tries to punch in the face. It's not even a bad attempt. Too bad that he's telegraphed it when he jumps literally a meter away from me. I dodge to the side and strike him in the chest while's he stumbling.

"1 point to Shoryuu. " Suzume-sensei calls. Gonna have to get used to that.

Naruto's a little more cautious this time. He knows I'm going to dodge if he tries that again. This time he's waiting for me.

I move forward and go for a blow to the face. He dodges it and prepares to strike me back. Too bad he hasn't my other fist following up. Really lives up to that 5 Perception there.

"2 - 0 in favour of Shoryuu." Suzume-sensei calls with a slight smile. Is she biased against Naruto as well?

Naruto's shaken up now. I'm starting to think he wasn't expecting to lose this badly against the new kid. Kind of sad to see him like this.

"Not bad. You're learning." A few reassuring words might make me feel like less of a villain.

He perks up a little at that and seems to regain a bit of fire in his eyes. He's charging forward again and tries to punch while not leaving the ground. I move forward and go for a punch as well.

I'm taller.

"3 - 0. Good job Shoryuu." Suzume-sensei says with a smile.

It doesn't do much for Naruto's mood though. I'm thinking of something to say, when he just turns and leaves. Nothing that the victor says can cheer up him, I guess. He'll bounce back on his own, probably...

"Nice job shutting the idiot up." Sasuke smirks.

"You and him must be great friends." I snark back.

"He's an idiot. Am I supposed to feel bad for the dead last?" Sasuke shoots back, still in a good mood.

"No, I guess not. Still, don't make me feel like I'm kicking a puppy." I say. Naruto'll have to earn Sasuke's respect later, I guess.

"Don't let dog-boy hear that." Sasuke finishes before going off again.

Are we friends? If so, this is one of the odder friendships I've had. Hope he doesn't make me his new best friend and try to kill me later.

Opening up the menu to 'Skills', I'm happy to see two new skills. A very profitable day today. Valour and Taijutsu seem good, even if I have no clue what Valour is meant to be. Either way, this academy is pretty obviously the fast track to power.

Just 4 years of this and then we hit canon. I've got a lot of grinding to do.

* * *

><p>After this I'm probably going to do a bit of a fast forward to test date. Mind you, I'm picking Disgaea D2 so I'm not going to be online as much. I've just been writing this while I was waiting for other things.<p> 


	4. A Very Terrible Decision

League can get way too addictive when you have friends to play with.

Navn Ukjent - Original intention was to have Analysis at that level be able to see stats up to 10 points higher. I might need to consider a beta when I start writing this thing on a bit more of a frequent basis.

* * *

><p>I can hear a knocking at the door. It's only 8 in the morning and I'm guessing it's Guy. He's the only person who knows where I live. I'm not that close with my classmates. One of the things about being the new kid, I guess.<p>

"Yes? What do you need? I have to get going soon." I answer without opening the door. He just keeps on knocking.

I head over and begin to open the door. He'd better have a good reason for being so happy in the morning. Waking up early doesn't mean I feel like being active this early, you know?

The door's open and a smile from his very shiny teeth burns out my eyes. Guess that's my ninja career over. Shoryuu Kannagi, ended at Age 8 due to blindness from very shiny teeth.

"Look, what did you want? It's too early to be putting in effort." I grumble while trying to get my eyes to recover.

"Young Shoryuu, that's a very negative attitude to have in the morning! Youth should be full of energy and ready to face the world! I simply thought my new neighbour would like to go for a morning jog with me." Guy says, still smiling.

"I've got to get to classes in an hour. Sorry but I need to prepare for them." I say, not actually having any work. Unless there's going to be a running skill involved, I really don't want to get involved with Guy's legendary training sessions.

"Well then, how could I help you?" Guy offers.

"...I just need to mentally prepare myself. It's hard being the new kid, you know?" I say, evading his gaze.

"Not to fear! A good morning jog should help you get any worries off your mind. I just finished up some morning training and thought I'd cooldown a bit. I'll be waiting outside!" Guy says, before dashing off and jumping to the first floor.

Ninja. I'm not getting out of this now but it isn't one of his training sessions. It's worth checking out for some running skills anyway.

I wonder when I stopped worrying about my life and started obsessing over skills.

* * *

><p>Hopping over a rock here and I land on the other side of a river. I don't know why Guy's morning jog route goes right next to a waterfall but I'm checking this place out in more detail later. I've never seen a small waterfall before. Not the kind of thing you see in a dry country and I didn't expect to see one in Konoha either.<p>

Slowing down, Guy begins to wait outside of the gate to a training ground. I've fallen a bit behind but he's been going slowly enough not to lose me even when I began to run out of breath. Nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be and it gave me a good view of the waterfall.

"Hey... Where are we now?" I ask, catching my breath.

"We've just finished up our little run of Training Ground 3. How did you feel about it?" Guy asks, looking happier than before.

"I could get used to this. The waterfall's pretty nice. I don't think I've ever seen one before." I reply. I do want to come back sometime.

"Well, you're free to come back here in your spare time. Training Ground 3 is open to students. I hear it was made for students." Guy answers.

"Yeah, I'll be back here. I gotta get to the Academy though." I start, before realising I don't where we are in comparison to the Academy.

"I'll take you there. I need to go to the Hokage Tower to report in and they are right next to each other." Guy continues to be helpful. I could have definitely gotten worse neighbours. Sorry Kakashi, but you're not quite as cool as Guy any more.

* * *

><p>Checking into the menu on the way to the Academy, I'm pleasantly surprised to see two new skills. Acrobatics and Stamina are both at D rank and they look like they'll give me some stats I needed. Though I wonder what exactly qualifies for 'Stamina' training...<p>

Either way, I've got another class waiting for me. A quick look around shows that most of the students are still outside but I've still got nowhere to really go. If I have nowhere else to go, I might as well take another look around.

Might work to try and meet up with all the Rookie 9. They are going to be important in the future and if I can get in with some of them, it'll make my life a lot easier. Having powerful friends hasn't killed anyone yet, at least none I can remember.

It doesn't take long to find my first lot of people. I can Choji and Shikamaru sitting together, not doing much. I thought Ino would've been with them but the fan club is definitely a thing already. Shouldn't be too hard to get to know them considering they had a reputation as friendly.

Plotting things out at 8. Lovely.

"Hey. I think I've seen you two before. Aren't you in my class?" I say. Was I too forward? Did I come off as aggressive? Why am I worrying so much?

"Um, hi. You're Shoryuu, right?" Choji replies.

"Yep. I just thought I'd try to learn about my classmates. Shoryuu Kannagi, and I don't know either of you two yet?" I prompt.

"I'm Choji and this is Shikamaru. Nice to meet you, Shoryuu." Choji says, putting out a arm.

We exchange handshakes. I think I might've picked the right person to start with. Choji always did seem like a nice person in the series. I might even try to avoid making a fat joke here. Considering how Choji reacted to those in the series, it was probably a good idea. Bad ideas are always so tempting.

"Having fun down there?" I gesture to the resting Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru's just taking a nap. He always does this before class." Choji explains.

How is he sleeping with his eyes open?

* * *

><p>The Academy was pretty much the same as yesterday, just without the taijutsu part. Apparently, that's only 3 times a week. I'd say I was happy for missing out on the equivalent of PE lessons but I could really use the practice. It does leave me fresh for the rest of the day.<p>

The Academy's over for now and I figured I could head over to Training Ground 3. I just feel like having some time to think over things in more detail would be nice. There's a few details I'll need to think about for later, such as how to deal with placements.

I can remember the rough path back to the waterfall. Pass by a udon shop, pass by a bookstore and it's not too far from a hotspring. I sure hope nothing goes flying over my head. Jiraiya shouldn't be in town around this time, but aside from the info about him searching for Orochimaru, I can't really ascertain his position. Though the chances of seeing him around are far too low for me to really be thinking about things. It's just something to keep in mind.

Arriving at the waterfall, there's not many people here. A few students, probably from the years above me, are here. Isolated from the rest of the group is a boy in a martial artist's training shirt thing punching out. The name eludes me at the moment but it's definitely an unusual sight. Seems like I've seen it before but I've never even looked at the filler. He turns around and suddenly, things fall into place.

I'd forgotten Rock Lee was like this before Guy.

I'd like to just forgot this happened. I really don't want to have this overly enthusisatic person following me around for an undetermined amount of time. But at the same time, I have to admire his determination. Who am I to ignore his will?

"Hey there. What are you practising?" I ask, casually.

"I am practising my punches! Hello, I am Rock Lee. It is very nice to meet you." Lee introduces himself with a smile. Same old optimistic idiot as I remember.

"Sorry about that, I'm Shoryuu Kannagi. Which year are you in?" I ask.

"I am in my second year of Ninja Academy!" Lee answers happily.

"Year above me, huh? Interesting." Taking the chance to do a quick scan, his stats are quite different that what I had expected.

Strength - 8

Perception - 7

Endurance - 9

Charisma - 5

Intelligence - 6

Agility - 9

Luck - 6

He's not that much better than me in all honestly. I can see that the melee combat based stats are higher on him in the case on strength, endurance and agility but he's losing to both Sasuke and Hinata in different areas. Looks like he needs to meet up with Gai and get training if we want to see Chunin Exams Lee any time soon.

"Ah, then you would be in your first year?" Lee asks, knocking me out of my thoughts.

"Mmm, yeah. You just training here?" I ask back.

"Yes! I must improve my taijutsu skills or I will not be able to keep up with my year." Lee responds, still cheerful.

"Pretty cool of you. You always come here this time of the day?" I ask.

"Yes, unless there is somewhere I can train better. But I find this training ground rather calming." Lee explains.

"I get you. I'm considering making a habit of coming here every morning. I just got set up here, so I'm a little everywhere at the moment." I say.

"Ah well, maybe I will see you in the morning tomorrow!" Lee says happily.

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." With a wave and a nod, I'm off.

* * *

><p>I didn't head that far from Lee, just heading over to the waterfall and the associated stream. I've decided to take a seat while I try to organise my thoughts. I'm doing this a lot lately, but getting dunked into chaos does that.<p>

There's a lot more to Konoha than was mentioned in the series. It's going to take some time to wrap my head around this but I'm starting to get my feet steady here. Going mostly forgotten here works fine for me.

The stream is continuously flowing, even now. If I dropped a rock in it, the stream would deform ever so slightly but it would recover. I'd like to be able to keep my future knowledge so going low-key is the plan.

Back on the stream, there's actually a few shadows beneath the surface. They're just wriggling their way down the river, uncaring of anything. Looks like a circular blob so I guess it's a fish. Poor fish's been thrown down a waterfall. It might have been thrown off a cliff but it's still going on.

Tapping the water, the fish darts forward. Even in the face of adversity, it still continues. Props to the fish.

Moving my hand a bit ahead of the fish, I dunk my hand in the water. The fish darts forward and straight into my hands. Closing my grip, I drag it out of the water.

It's a fish. What else could I say?

Letting the fish back into the water, I think I've sorted out my thoughts for today.

I need to keep a low profile to make sure nothing changes too much from canon. I need to be on the look out for someone like Danzo as well. I should be low-key enough to be ignored, but some people are beyond my thought processes. How do you help Konoha by aggravating the world again?

Checking my skills for something like a fishing skill, I wasn't expecting this.

"Your Analytics Skill has been raised to rank B. You have gained one point of Perception and one point of Intelligence. Additionally, your 'Scan' ability has been enhanced.' I didn't even know the limits on that thing, but still sweet. Going to be bugging me for a bit though.

"You have developed the 'Water Affinity' skill at rank D."

There's the new thing. I suppose that's the start of an affinity but I'm going to be wondering if I could've developed another skill. Another answer, another question. I think I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

Water Affinity doesn't seem like a thing I can really start yet. The training for it was never mentioned and the only water user I can really remember is Zabuza. Kisame might've done some things as well but all I remember was some sharks and a few waves. Nothing I could practice. Something I need to look into at some point. Going for an assassin style build could honestly work out pretty well. I've got the perception stat to get off a good hit, my endurance is low enough I'd want to avoid a prolonged engagement and I've already been practising stealth.

That brings me to what I'd actually what to focus on for a stealthy assassin build. The obvious focus stats are perception and agility. From there I'd need to choose whether to focus on ninjutsu with a focus in intelligence or taijutsu with weapons for the alternate strength path. The first option would go with some overwhelmingly powerful ninjutsu to kill my opponents as fast as possible. The second option would be about being able to sneak up and get off devastating first strikes.

All in all, it sounds like an alright path to take. Seems like less raw combat and more preparation and positioning. Gives me a bit of a niche in the future as well. I'll worry about the ramifications later though. Checking my stats now to see which area is the biggest problem.

Strength - 7

Perception - 10

Endurance - 6

Charisma - 8

Intelligence - 10

Agility - 6

Luck - 5

It's not something I'd noticed earlier but I've been getting a lot of points in perception and intelligence over other stats. A bit annoying considering I've been wanting some agility for a good deal of time but power is power.

I'm not too sure about focusing on ninjutsu for now though. Even though I have a good base to work from here, I'm still missing any sort of ninjutsu. Current plan seems to be to focus on dragging that agility out of the gutter and into something feasible. That means a lot of taijutsu practice and exercise. Looks like I am going to be joining Guy on his morning runs.

* * *

><p>"Well, of course you can join me on a morning run! But what inspired this sudden burst of youthfulness?" Guy asks.<p>

"Feelings of personal inadequacy, I guess?" I hadn't exactly planned this part through...

"No fears, I'll have you all the confidence you need in no time!" Guy proclaims pulling the nice guy pose.

"Er, thanks?" Did I choose wrongly here...?

* * *

><p>Thing's not dead quite yet. I wasn't expecting this year to be quite so heavy on the work. Kind of got my bearings for now, so I'll see what I can do in the near future. I finish up assessments at the end of March, so I can write up a next chapter then. This is kind of a boring part of the story, even if I do get to write original. Next chapter is definitely pulling a time skip.<p> 


	5. Teams

"Congratulations, Shoryuu Kannagi. You've passed all the requirements to become a genin. Take your hitai-ate and see yourself out."

After 4 years, I'm finally through the academy.

Returning back to my seat with hitai-ate in hand, I take a seat next to Choji who managed to get his headband. Shikamaru's yet to be called out for his exam, but he'll be fine.

It's been a pretty easy going 4 years. Most of my time was spent fitting into the village but I did get some training done. Another thing of note that popped was getting an extra point in every stat on my birthday. Growing up gives you free stats apparently. It's one way to do puberty, I guess.

Shoryuu Kannagi

Strength - 11

Perception - 14

Endurance - 11

Charisma -13

Intelligence - 15

Agility - 11

Luck - 10

Communication C

Composure C

Persuasion C

Codebreaking C

Deception C

Analytics B

Valour C

Taijutsu C

Water Affinity D

Looking pretty good here. If you're thinking that my contemporaries got a similar boost, I'll have to interject with the fact that they don't seem to have had the same type of boosts I've had. They've gotten stronger but aside from general training, there's no real source to the power boost. Sasuke is a pretty good example of this.

Strength - 12

Perception - 15

Endurance - 11

Charisma - 8

Intelligence - 14

Agility - 17

Luck - 8

His strengths grew at an accelerated pace and his weaknesses grew less so. The trend is similar to what I've seen in others. He still has more agility than I feel I could ever manage to achieve. Working on it, but I'm not getting much agility. I got a point when Taijutsu grew but there wasn't much of a chance to get a better rank there. I have a feeling I'll need to upgrade to a style better than the academy style before I can get level that up more.

Yeah, I still hang out with that guy on some very rare occasions, if you were wondering. It's pretty hard to get some time with him because of the fanclub and his habits of disappearing but I've managed from time to time. We haven't trained together but I've just been doing the general practice and the work with Guy. Maybe I'll invite him to a spar later. Could be hilarious.

That aside, my presence hasn't changed this village too much. I'm friends with Choji and Shikamaru, hang out with Sasuke on the occasion. The big thing is that Shino disappeared a while back and we never got an answer why. He might be doing some in clan business, but if he is, it's beyond my knowledge. That's been bugging me for a while but any time I try to find anything out about it, I can't actually get anything on the subject. Just a few words about how's he on clan business, blah blah blah. I've given up on ever finding him again.

Back in the present, I've just got my headband. In my years here, I've rose fairly quickly to the upper ranks of the classes. I'm above average in knowledge and pretty high up there in practicals. Top third of the class for ninjutsu and a bit better in the taijutsu portions. Sasuke and Kiba are surprisingly tough to fight in those sections.

Exams are about to finish up and right on the mark, a dejected looking Naruto pops out of the exam room. Nothing I can really say to him to make him feel better. Naruto kind of forgets I'm here and we've never really had any sort of bonds between us. Didn't want to get dragged into some pranks or noticed by any authorities. I'm already suspicious for having no background, talking to Naruto would get some people worried.

Nothing more I can do here. Time to go home, I guess.

* * *

><p>I slept well that night. Getting the first part of the exam was a bit of a relief. Never been much good at tests.<p>

I'm in class right now, waiting for the assignments. I'm figuring that it'll probably be the normal teams minus Shino. No clue about that team or where I'm going. Hopefully, Team 8's going to be my team.

Naruto walks in about now. Surprise, surprise, nobody gets why he's here. He brings out the shiny headband and starts waving it about.

I might miss Mizuki a tad.

People begin to accuse the guy of stealing and just about as soon as I feel like interrupting, Sasuke interrupts. If I remember correctly, this is that scene...

Naruto hops on the desk and begins to yell at Sasuke, real close. The two get into an argument and then the guy in front of Naruto turns around. It's one of the old main-stays of the class, Akira, the guy who is the very definition of average. He goes to shove Naruto for some unknown reason and Naruto and Sasuke collide. Those two look they're having fun. I give him a thumbs up. Gotta appreciate a good push.

After a giant rumble of noise, Iruka arriving to deal with this and Sasuke giving me a glare, we're getting ready to hear the team announcments. There's a big heartfelt speech from Iruka, but I'm just curious to hear the team's. Get to the point already...

"Team shall consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha under jounin sensei Kakashi Hatake." Throw in your comedy reactions there, that one's the same as ever.

"Team 8 shall consist of Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shoryuu Kannagi under jounin sensei Kurenai Yuhi." That's a pretty good team. I wave hi to both Kiba and Hinata. Not sure if they noticed.

The rest of the teams were the same as normal. Iruka began a speech but I tuned him out for a bit.

"...From this day forth, you will be serving as a ninja of Konoha. I have high hopes for all of you. I'm starting to get a little teary, actually..." Iruka finishes happily. Typical congratulations, really. It's still nice to hear it from what had been a strict teacher.

"Your jounin sensei's should be arriving soon. I'd recommend finding your team and waiting with them. They should be stopping by this classroom in a bit. I think some of them are just waiting around. Well, good luck, everyone." Iruka says, before opening the classroom door.

A few jounin's filter through the door and what I remember to be Kurenai Yuhi is among them. Her outfit is as ridiculous as it seemed in the anime, but I'm not going to comment. She was a pretty woman. Pretty easy to see how Asuma fell for her, but eh. That really doesn't matter too much now.

I get up and head to the front, gathering into a group with Kiba and Hinata. Kurenai gives us a nod and begins to head off, with us following. We pass through the academy, then the city, finally arriving at a fairly flat training ground with a few trees and a peaceful lake. This place seems familiar but I can't remember it. Mustn't be too important.

"If we're all here, I believe we should go on with some introductions. I'm Kurenai Yuhi, your jounin sensei. I hope you all know each other but shall we go on with some introductions?" Kurenai says, smiling mysteriously.

Might as well get a reading before I throw myself on the chopping block.

Strength - 42

Perception - 56

Endurance - 49

Charisma - 51

Intelligence - ?

Agility - 59

Luck - 44

...Well. Glad to know that my teacher is a god relative to me. What kind of crazy point does Analytics B fizzle out at anyway? There's a 48 point difference in Agility, but I can see that. That places her Intelligence at 63 or higher.

Should be interesting. Stepping forward, I begin to introduce myself.

"Hey, I'm Shoryuu Kannagi. I've been in your class but yeah, I wasn't that social. I like quiet places, relaxing and books, I guess? Excessive enthusiasm annoys me. There's a story behind that one, but let's not go into that yet. Looking forward to this. " I finish off. Perhaps I need to prepare an introduction for the next new set of people I meet. Kiba continues on.

"I'm Kiba Inuzuka and this is Akamaru!" Akamaru barks. Paying attention to the dog now but I might as well take a quick scan of Kiba.

Strength - 14

Perception - 9

Endurance - 13

Charisma -11

Intelligence - 12

Agility - 16

Luck - 12

That's a pretty good build. It's also a relief to know he's not that far ahead of me. Hinata speaks up now.

"H-hello... My name is H-Hinata..." Yeah, her stutter's pretty bad. Tuned her out in favour of looking at her stats. Hey, I already know these people to some extent. Never spoken to them but I've seen enough of them to get a rough profile.

Strength - 11

Perception - 14

Endurance - 13

Charisma - 10

Intelligence - 13

Agility - 18

Luck - 7

Yep, still faster than me. I swear, I'm going to check Chouji again and see I'm faster than someone. On another note, those are some seriously slanted growths. She had 8 strength 5 years ago. That's 3 points over 5 years.

While I was running through the stats, she must have finished off her introduction.

"Now that we've all introduced ourselves, I have some unfortunate news for you all. Even though you've passed the academy exam, you still have another exam before I'll agree to teach you. " Kurenai says. So this wasn't exclusive to Kakashi...

Kiba begins to say something but a sidewards glance to him from me shuts him up. No point yelling at things before we get the full briefing.

"Your test? Find me again within these training grounds." Kurenai says before disappearing.

Master of illusions, team with good tracking capabilities. That makes sense, I guess.

A few quick attempts to dispel genjutsu prove pretty worthless. Not sure if she's just not there or I can't break it. Might be something I need to look into later.

"Trying to break genjutsu didn't work here. Kiba, your family is meant to have a good sense of smell, isn't it?" I ask, turning around.

He's already disappeared...

* * *

><p>It didn't take Hinata and I too long to find Kiba, confused and checking his surroundings. Idiot then walked into a tree. I suspected then he was under some genjutsu. A quick dispel, and he finally notices us.<p>

"Head's up, I don't think it's a good idea to split yet. You just got caught. Care to join us?" I ask quickly. Kiba's probably our best bet of finding Kurenai quickly.

"Yeah, alright. But how'd I get here?" Kiba asks, confused.

"Jounins are better than us and know actual genjutsu?" I offer.

"U-um, yes. Our s-sensei is a famous genjutsu user." Hinata says before going quiet.

"Alright, alright. I'll go with you guys then." Kiba says, throwing out his hands.

"Any clue where she'd be? All I can say is that she said she'd be in these training grounds." We need to come up with a plan before we go off.

"I was tracking what I thought was her scent. Akamaru and I'll have to head back and try to find it again."

"Got it. I'll keep an eye on you if you get hit again." A quick agreement between us and the team's off.

* * *

><p>Heading back to where we started, Kiba and Akamaru begin tracking by scent again. I'm keeping an eye on Kiba for illusions, whilst Hinata keeps a lookout for any clues.<p>

Yeah, I should probably start doing some research into more tactics.

Eventually, Kiba leads us over to the lake.

"The track ends here. It kind of fans out? I guess she went over the water. Can't track her scent over water." Kiba says, shaking his head.

With a quick nod, I try to dispel whatever genjutsu might be up now.

"L-Look out!" And on that note, Kiba tackles me to ground and a kunai whizzes past my head.

"Hey, what are you doing? That would've hit you!" Kiba barks, right in my ear.

"Right, thanks. Checking for genjutsu but I guess she's here. We going to head to the other side of the lake?" I say, trying to play it down.

"Yeah, alright. Dodge next time." Kiba says, before heading off to the other side.

Walking around the lakeside, no scent is found. When we get over to the other side of the lake, there's no scent to be found either. Kiba doubles back to check but I've got my suspicions. Pulling out a kunai, I toss it out over the lake.

The kunai disappears into the air above a steady patch of water. An unusually steady patch of water in a lake which is rolling gently. Unnaturally, so.

"Kiba, Hinata. You see that? She's standing on the lake, on the spot with no waves." I gesture out there.

...That might actually be the best choice of location. Kiba can track her on the land by scent, hiding in a tree or something like that would be pointless with Hinata. It's hiding in an obvious location but with genjutsu... I think I'll be paying attention from here on out.

"How would you hide in the middle of a lake?" Kiba asks, scratching his head. Akamaru just tilted his head in confusion.

"You two help me dispel this genjutsu and I'll talk you through it." I say, before starting the general seals to break a genjutsu. Kiba grumbles for a moment but then catches up to Hinata with helping me break the illusion.

"You've passed. You can stop now." Kurenai's voice comes from the lake.

Right before our eyes, Kurenai reappaears much like she had disappeared earlier, fading in. It's pretty interesting. I'm hoping we'll get to learn some genjutsu from her. There wasn't too much covered in the academy and I can't remember seeing too much non-Sharingan genjutsu.

Too much to learn, never enough time to figure out what to start with.

"Sensei, was this test just about tracking you down?" Kiba asks, setting aside my explanation.

"No, but tracking was a part of it. I was hoping to see how you would work as a unit as well as how aware you were in the field." Is that meant to be a jab for not noticing the still patch of water?

"You worked fairly well for a new team, and you did manage to notice the flying kunai. It would've been better if you'd try to organise things first or you noticed the dead patch of water. But I'm still proud of you. I'll be happy to take you three on as a team." Kurenai says with a smile.

Kiba lets out a whoop and I almost feel like following in kind. Hinata lets out a smile. I just roll my shoulders and try to ease the tension in them. This went way better than what Team 7's test looked like. Guess there's benefits to not hating each other from the start.

"We'll meet up outside the Hokage's Tower at 8 in the morning. Don't be late. Tardiness is a bad habit." Kurenai seems to frown at this. Guess she doesn't like Kakashi too much.

...On the topic of Kakashi, isn't this actually the same training ground Team 7 did their test in? Lake that Naruto got dunked in, forest that Sakura fell to genjutsu and the flat area where Sasuke got his ass kicked.

Guess I better get out of here before they want to do their test.

Waving goodbye, I start to head towards the library. I wasn't kidding about that tactics thing.

Opening up my character window, I can see a new 'Tactics D'. Splendid.

* * *

><p>I was surprised to see a copy of 'The Art of War' in the village library. Taking a look through the notes reveal it's actually from the era before Konoha. Might be outdated but it looks like a place to start.<p>

I'm on my way back to my apartment when I stumble something I don't see too often. Team Guy is all together and they seem to be carrying shopping bags. Bet it's a D-rank.

I still usually see Guy around but his team trains somewhere else. It means I've had to do my early morning training on my own. Lee, I haven't had too much contact with him in a long time. He definitely started training earlier so that'll be interesting to see later.

Deciding to approach them, I wave while heading over. Guy sees me and waves back.

"Hey, is this your team, Guy?" I ask. Guy and I are on pretty casual terms. He's not too fussy about me calling him that.

"Yes, you are correct! I don't think I've introduced them yet. Go on." Guy greets before taking a step back.

"Hello! I am Rock Lee! Pleased to meet you!' Lee says exuberantly.

"Yeah, we've met. New set of clothes, huh?" I say. Perfect time to take a look at him.

Strength - 24

Perception -16

Endurance - 26

Charisma - 8

Intelligence - 11

Agility - 32

Luck - 12

...Guy did some work on him. Not fighting him, don't want to get kicked and die. Nope, I'll have none of that.

"Ah, I'm Tenten. Nice to meet you." Tenten introduces herself while Lee tries to figure out where I've seen him.

"Shoryuu Kannagi. I've known Guy for a while, so we're old buds." I finally introduce myself.

"That sounds like it would be interesting..." Tenten say with what seems to be pity in her eyes.

Yeah, it was interesting. And you are?

Strength - 16

Perception - 25

Endurance - 18

Charisma - 13

Intelligence - 15

Agility - 24

Luck - 14

Ah, that's better. Just better than me in pretty much everything. Looks like a year with a teacher like Guy does some amazing things for the students.

"...Neji Hyuuga." The last, and the cold fish.

"You don't need to introduce yourself. I get you." He really is a lot like Sasuke.

Strength - 18

Perception - 28

Endurance - 21

Charisma - 7

Intelligence - 16

Agility - 30

Luck - 8

Yeah, Lee's rival would have to be that good.

General trend of all being really fast and pretty accurate. They hit hard but I suspect their ninjutsu and genjutsu aren't as good as their taijutsu.

Either way, I've got a lot to catch up to. I wave and being heading back to my apartment.

If I can't keep up with that, I'm going to die.

Eventually.

* * *

><p>Not enough info on Kurenai, making original content is tricky. Covering new ground is harder than rehashing what has been done but I feel it makes for a more interesting story. I'm going to need to come up with something for Team 8's first C rank. I'll go through some ideas but suggestions wouldn't hurt. No guarentee's I'll use one though.<p> 


	6. White Lie

IT LIVES

* * *

><p>"Like I said, we're the grunts of Konoha right now. Makes sense to shove the worst of work on to us." I explained through gritted teeth.<p>

"Yeah, you've said that three times now. But why do we have to go pick groceries for some old lady?" Kiba grumbles, trying not to be overheard by our teacher.

"Just think of this. One day, you'll be able to shove off D-ranks onto some poor hapless graduate. And then we'll all laugh at them." I say, rolling my shoulders. Where the hell does Kiba get the energy to argue about everything?

"I-I'm not sure I'd really want to do that..." Hinata mumbles for the first time in a while.

"Feh. Give it some time." D-ranks really are starting to drag on me. And we've only done 3 so far...

* * *

><p>Good job, team 8. There's still more work available if your team needs more, Kurenai...?" The Hokage says, puffing on his pipe.<p>

"No thank you, sir. I think I need to take care of some other things with them now." Kurenai says.

"Be on your way then. More teams are waiting." And with that, we leave the room.

The Hokage is usually a lot more friendly than this but I don't know what's with him today. Maybe he's curious about team seven. I'll have to check them out later as well.

The first day of D-ranks have been quite mundane. Couldn't have really expected anything else but it's boring me as well. I'll never admit it to Kiba though. I don't want to start up any arguments about D-ranks with Kurenai just yet. Need to get more practice in before I look up. Hopefully, this business is meant to be training.

Kurenai was one of those teacher's mostly passed over in canon. Supposed genjutsu master, got beat by Itachi in his first appearance and never did anything again until Shippuden. She's nice enough but...

Running into Kiba and getting a bark from Akamaru, we come to a stop.

"If you feel up to listening today, Shoryuu, I think the rest of us would like to get started with some practice." Kurenai says.

"Listening now, sensei." I respond quickly.

"Thank you. Now, the first thing that I need to get to ask you before anything else is this. How well do you know the other teams?

"Nah, not really. I wasn't really paying attention to the other teams once I heard mine." Kiba admits, Akamaru letting a happy bark.

"I-I know that Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura are on the same team..." Hinata says, ducking away after that.

"I remember Team 7 and Team 10. Choji, Ino and Shikamaru under a Sarutobi. Poor guy's going to have tons of fun getting Shikamaru to work." I finish.

"Mmm. That's not as much information as I'd like for you to have so I'll let you know this. Team 7 is under Hatake Kakashi with Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka are under Asuma Sarutobi in Team 10." Kurenai says, not needing a list. Short list, huh?

"A genin team is a significant team investment for the jounin and the village, so the sensei is allowed to fail the prospective team if they feel the need to. I might've mentioned this earlier?" Kurenai continues. Kiba and Hinata look pretty confused here. Guess she must've glossed over that part earlier.

"...Sensei, what happens to those who are failed? 9 genin a year hardly seems sustainable. Do they just go back to Academy or what?" Some said there were genin reserve corps or similar. I've never had a confirmation.

"Mhm, the failed students have the choice of becoming a genin under no teacher or going back to the academy. Genin with no teacher often have a rougher time and there's only so many times the Academy will accept the failures. A lot of things weren't covered in the Academy course for good reasons." Ooh, a life as genin. Sucks to be them.

"But I've gotten off topic. I've already organised for Team 10 to be meeting up with us for lunch. Unless you have some pressing concern, I'll expect you to attend." Team 10, huh? I wonder if it's about us talking to them or Kurenai talking to Asuma...

"Meet up at the Hokage tower in about 30 minutes. We'll take you from there." And that's the que for Kurenai to shunshin away. The leaves left after the transportation are a nice touch but I've never understood where the leaves come from.

"Hey, Team 10 was Choji, Shika and Ino, right? Why are we even meeting with them? We aren't going to be working with them for ages." Kiba asks.

"No real reason not to hang out with them, but it's a bit of a pity she couldn't pull something with Team 7. Pity, I'd been meaning to catch up with Sasuke these past few days." Bet he's still seething on the inside about his team.

"Yeah, that's another thing. Why are you Sasuke even friends? The prick doesn't like anyone and he's always off on his own." Kiba continues. I guess you could say he's hounding me now.

"I pick some pretty good hiding spots. He doesn't like the spotlight. You remember the Sasuke Appreciation Club, yeah?" No, they don't have an actual name.

"Oh man, I remember them. No clue why they kept chasing the guy but it almost made me feel sorry for him. They're all crazy. What even makes him a chick-magnet?" Anime, Kiba. Either that or comedy.

"Hinata?"

"H-Huh? N-No, I don't know why they like Sasuke so much." It's so easy to forget Hinata's here at times. I should try to fix that.

"Well, there you go Kiba. It's a mystery for the ages. What do you think, Akamaru?" Akamaru must've gotten a lot more energetic between the teams forming and chunin exams, because I barely hear anything out of him. Looks more like a fluffy ball right now.

'Oi, he doesn't know either. Guess I'll have to ask Sasuke. You reckon he knows?" Kiba says, pulling Akamaru out his hair. Little guy was sleeping all along.

"I think he'd love to know. Maybe we can toss around theories or something later. Anyway, I'm out for a bit. I'll meet you all at the Tower." I wave as I leave.

* * *

><p>I just did a drive by my apartment and freshened up for a bit before heading over to the Tower. Nothing more to say there. Splash some water, make sure my hair doesn't look too stupid and we're good to go.<p>

Arriving at the tower after working my way through the lunch hour rush, I can see that Hinata, Choji and Ino are all here. We've got something like 10 minutes left to go if my internal clocks are working these days. There's an awkward silence in the air but it holds for only a moment.

"Afternoon everyone. How's your team, Choji, Ino?" A simple nod is all I get from Choji but Ino is a little more talkative.

"Hi, Shoryu. You wouldn't believe how lazy Shika and sensei are! It's only been a day but all they've been doing is playing shogi!" That would explain where she's finding all this energy.

"Sounds invigorating. You must be having the time of your time." Basic response, time to take a look and hope she doesn't think I'm checking her out.

Ino

Strength - 9

Perception - 11

Endurance - 10

Charisma -12

Intelligence - 12

Agility - 12

Luck - 11

...I'm better than her but she's still faster than me. I'm starting to feel like this is a joke. Might as well as take a look at the others while I've got time.

Shikamaru

Strength - 10

Perception - 14

Endurance - 9

Charisma -11

Intelligence - 24

Agility - 11

Luck - 8

Yeah, not particularly strong but smart as hell. Not too much of a surprise. The tie is annoying me though.

Choji

Strength - 15

Perception - 10

Endurance - 12

Charisma -11

Intelligence - 11

Agility - 8

Luck - 12

Here's my break. Petty little thing, but it had been bugging me. Anyway, highest strength I've seen in our age bracket, excluding Team Guy.

Neat, but now I'm wondering if it really was just training with Guy that drove up their stats. Some of these guys are meant to be heirs and I know Sasuke's being training like a madman. So why is there such a massive gap between the recent graduates and Team Guy? Maybe missions have more of an impact on stats? Is combat necessary to improve rapidly within a quick time period?

"...are you even listening?" Ino comes to a stop, glaring at me.

"Oh hello there, Kiba, how nice to see you on this fine night" Must not stare directly at angry blonde.

"Yo, I miss anything? Akamaru says hi too." Kiba says, Akamaru barking on his shoulders.

"I'm sure Ino can fill you in." I didn't expect Ino to talk that much. We've barely spoken and she's already trying to talk my ears off? Is this normal?

Slipping back a bit into the shadows, I can see Choji and Shikamaru chuckling over something. Better not be me, else I'm going to have to achieve black vengeance. I seriously didn't expect Ino to be that loud or forward. Perhaps I'll need to pay more attention to people in the future.

"Hey Hinata, how are you?" She seems to be disappearing again. It's a little impressive how she can disappear so well.

"A-ah, I'm fine." She startles but retreats back into her jacket quick enough. One of these days I'll figure out a way to talk to her without her backing off so quick but...

* * *

><p>The two teacher's arrived looking quite close. I didn't bother to make a comment but it's interesting to see that their relationship this early. Or at least, it seems to be. I was never much good with any sort of romantic intentions or cues.<p>

They brought us over to some place called Yaku-Q. Sounds familiar from somewhere, a steakhouse by that name may have been mentioned over these years. I'm not really in the mood to go pursuing memories this night, so it shall be forever buried.

Kurenai and Asuma slipped off somewhere. Probably went off to a private table for two. That left us six together, with nothing to spark a conversation. Orders had been made, seats had been picked and we were all far too awkward.

Maybe not so much Ino, though?

"Hey, who's your teacher? I've never seen them before?" Ino's quick to try and start a conversation.

"Kurenai-sensei? She's our teacher. And I've never seen your teacher before either." Kurenai's been rather distant to the team, excluding Hinata. All I know of her is what was in the manga, but once again, there's not enough to make an image of her.

"Oh, Asuma-sensei? He's useless! All he does is sit around and play shogi with Shika here all day." She says, poking a dozing Shikamaru.

"...What else did you expect him to do?' Shikamaru complains with no real heat in his voice.

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe something like training or maybe a few more missions?" Ino says, huffing.

'We haven't done any training either though. We did do some extra missions but those were a pain."

Kiba grumbles beneath a happy Akamaru.

"Er, Kiba? Is Akamaru allowed in the restaurant? I thought no-animals policies were the norm?" Not that I object to Akamaru being here or anything.

"That's the usual rule but it doesn't apply for ninja dog's. Even though he's a puppy, he's still a nin-dog so he gets to come inside." Kiba says with a smug looking Akamaru.

That dog is surprisingly intelligent. Cute too.

* * *

><p>"Hinata, you seriously ordered that much? You'll get fat if you eat that much!" Ino proclaims upon seeing Hinata's order.<p>

"U-um, w-well..." I could imagine that Hinata and Ino would've not gotten on too well, just from their personalities alone.

"Looks normal to me. You sure you aren't going to starve?" I have to interject here; Ino's meal is pretty small.

"No, I can't afford to eat that much. It'll ruin my diet." Ino nods to herself as if this answers everything.

"...Why do you need to diet? We're ninja. We don't do diets." Kiba says, as confused as I am.

"Maybe you don't care but I've got to stay thin for Sasuke! He likes thin woman, don't you know?" Ino responds. There's potential here.

"Thin women, eh? That's the first time I've ever heard that before and I used to hang out with him." I begin.

"Really? We always heard that he was totally into thin girls back in the academy." Ino replies, having stopped eating her meal.

"Yes, he never mentioned a preference for that kind of body. But..." Trailing off is important here. I need her to seek this on her own.

"But?" Ino says, leaning in.

"It's not like he's completely apathetic to the female gender. I really shouldn't say anything more." My face is going to split into a massive smirk if I can't get this down quick enough.

'No, go on. What were you going to say?" Ino is completely fooled. Deception C must be doing some work here.

"He could be into... I'll make this simple. He's been much more receptive to large woman than the thin. Perhaps."

"...You mean I've doing this wrong the entire time?" That's an amusing expression on your face, Ino.

"Doing what this entire time?" No more holding back, my grin's out in full force.

Ino just sinks into her seat. I feel as if I've accomplished something today. Some strange expressions are directed at me, but I don't feel like inquiring now. A jaunty little tune played in the background and peaceful note could be heard.

* * *

><p>Thing's didn't take too long to finish up after that. They didn't feel like serving drinks to the table of 13-year olds. Good thing I never drunk anyway. A shame upon my Australian heritage but I have the excuse of being 13 now.<p>

Kiba and I are just walking back now. I didn't know that he lived in the same half of town as I did but you learn something new everyday.

"So, uh, is Sasuke really into fat chicks?" Kiba blurts out.

"Is he? I wouldn't know. He's never said anything of the sort. Actually, he's never said much. But let's pretend he did, hmm?" Kiba's my bud, I think? Probably wouldn't sell me out.

"So that whole thing back at the restaurant...?" Kiba, take a guess.

"I'm surprised she believed it. Going to need to be a lot better than that if she wants to be a ninja." I really am surprised she believed it.

Kiba seems to turn and break into laughter. It's muffled but I hear it and I can see him shaking in this night light.

"That's hilarious. Later, man." He says, before turning into another street.

It is Kiba, it is.

Opening up my menu, I see a Deception B. That gives me a +2 to Intelligence and a +1 to Charisma. Was it just my Charisma bonus vs. Ino or the Deception skill that let me fool her so easily? It could've easily been some combination of my Deception skill and my Charisma vs. hers, even if I don't know her Deception level. I need to try this out more at some point.

But regardless, this puts me at 17 Intelligence now. My best hypothesis is that Intelligence will give me a boost to ninjutsu and genjutsu. Kurenai's massive intelligence combined with the generally lower intelligence of Team Guy in comparison to the rest of their stat's is my only proof but I'm fairly confident in this.

But I've learned already that it's tricky to get your hand on anything resembling decent ninjutsu or genjutsu without some sort of key. In these past years, I haven't been able to get my hand on anything beyond E-rank ninjutsu. The much hallowed Campfire Technique is only one of this mystical rank. Could always check with Kurenai.

Next chance, I've gotta bug Kurenai for some genjutsu. I'm not getting anywhere.

* * *

><p>I got stumped hard on this chapter. Wrote up the introduction to dinner, thought I couldn't do anything, went on anyway. Still feel like is just filler but eh, I can hope it's amusing filler. Next chapter will probably include an intro to a C-rank, whenever I get to it.<p> 


	7. Opening Two Eyes

Before I get into the story, I'd like to apologize for missing some skills. I'll add his current state to the bottom of this chapter with his skills and updated stats.

* * *

><p>"How was last night, Hinata?" Kurenai asks while we're on our way to get a mission.<p>

"I-It was okay, sensei." Hinata doesn't seem to startle as much when it's Kurenai. I think I remember hearing something about Kurenai knowing Hinata back in the academy, and there seems to be some truth to that.

"Just okay? Nothing interesting happened?" Kurenai asks.

"There was food. It was good. Although, we had to convince Ino to start eating for some reason..." I respond. It was rather uneventful, in retrospect. Kiba hides a snicker.

"My, why was that the case?" Kurenai is smiling. Seems she has heard something.

"Something about a diet and needing to be thin for her 'Sasuke'. It was very sad to see such misinformation. " I can't really hold back a smile either.

"Indeed."

* * *

><p>D-ranks. I don't think I'll ever miss you. Why do you need ninja to water your lawn again?<p>

"Whoa, what is this?" Kiba takes a step back.

He's just splashed a beehive. Great. I grab him and take a step back.

"Hey Hinata, did we bring any insecticide?" I hope we did.

"I don't think we did..." Hinata is already on the opposite side of the yard. Smart girl.

"Oh crap."

"Kiba, this is all up to you. Going to grab some insecticide, don't die!" Time to run!

Akamaru laughs a little, sitting on a lawn chair.

* * *

><p>"Ow, ow, this really itches..." Kiba grumbles, holding some ice to his shoulder.<p>

"Monotonous and irritating. Finding a cat sounds a lot easier and a lot less dangerous." I've always hated gardening.

"Not sure if it is. I've heard stories about Tora the Demon Cat. You hear about how it managed to evade an entire of genin by holding it's breath under water for about a minute or how it managed to climb up the Hokage tower. I hear a chunin had to grab Tora in that last case." Kiba mumbles, shaking his hand.

"Ahahaha... Maybe some form of appeasment would work better?" Oh dear, that stuff about Tora being hard to catch is true...

* * *

><p>"C'mere cat. I come in peace. I present to you this bountiful offering of the seas." I say, slowly approaching Tora with a dead fish.<p>

Tora watches the fish and begins to approach slowly. I begin to take a few steps back.

Tora suddenly leaps at me, jumping higher than cat of his type should able to accomplish. I throw the fish into the air, and grab the cat. It scratches me in the chest and leaves some red marks. After a moment, it seems to give up. This song and dance must be a old tune to it.

"Target acquired. The plan was an absolute success." How's that for bait, team?

"Huh, good job. I didn't the cat would that easy to trick." Kiba comes out from behind an alleyway with Hinata.

"M-Maybe it's hungry?" Hinata offers.

"I ain't picking up the fish. I don't even know where it landed. C'mon, let's just go back and hand the cat in." I respond, beginning the trip back to Hokage tower. Damn, this cat is pretty heavy.

* * *

><p>None of the missions during the rest of the day were as eventful, if you want to call them that. Had to babysit a kid, not too bad, had to clean some of the academy training fields, that was nostalgic. After these 4 missions, Kurenai called us together and dismissed us for the day. It seemed a bit early to be finishing up, but I didn't have enough to judge it by.<p>

Still, before she disappeared, I had to see if I could get any more materials to learn. I've got nowhere to go with water ninjutsu, I'd like to see what genjutsu I could at least give a shot and I don't know if anyone really feels like training now.

"Hey, sensei? Is there any chance we could get some materials to work on?" I ask, before leaving the Hokage tower.

"Oh? What prompted this?" Kurenai asks.

"I feel I just need something to work on. I don't bring anything unique to the team and I don't want to hold the team back." It's true, I don't have anything for combat yet. I'm about as useful as Sakura right now, considering I don't have actual water ninjutsu yet.

"A rather blunt assessment, isn't it? Have you asked at the Shinobi Library yet?" Kurenai responds.

"...They have ninjutsu and genjutsu there?" This is new.

"If you ask at the front desk and show ID, there are some things they are allowed to sell to you. Nothing too complex and especially not to a genin, but if you needed something to work on..." She doesn't need to say anything more.

"Thanks for your help, I'll take a look into this." I can make progress now.

* * *

><p>"Hey, are there are water ninjutsu or genjutsu scrolls here?" I'm asking at the front desk. Couldn't hurt to be direct, hey?<p>

"Maybe. You a genin, boy?" The librarian seems to be judging me.

"Yeah, I've got a genin ID." I say, pulling out my ID. We got these a while back. I wonder if Naruto actually did the kabuki thing again for his ID photo.

"Checks out. How good are you at either of those?" He asks after checking the ID in the light.

"I can do some basic water ninjutsu, the E-rank stuff. I've also done the basic genjutsu training at the academy. Nothing too advanced."

"Got a beginner's scroll to water ninjutsu with some D-rank techniques and a beginner's genjutsu scroll. The water ninjutsu will cost you 300 Ryo and the Genjutsu will cost you 250." The librarian says, pulling out two scrolls, one tied with a blue ribbon and one with a purple ribbon.

"Ah, so we buy them rather than borrowing them?" This is a bit weird.

"Yep, kid. You could find these techniques in any Shinobi library in the world. Security's not too tight on these. Genin and up are the only people allowed to buy these, though." He answers.

"I'll take them both." I answer, pulling out the money.

Why did I never ask the library about this before?

* * *

><p>After buying the scrolls, I went back to Training Ground 3. There's a lake and a waterfall there to practice this ninjutsu. This is where I picked up my affinity in the first place, though I haven't spent too much time here since. Might be easier to figure out this technique here.<p>

For being a game system, the world's been surprisingly sparse with information. It could be that I don't have the techniques to analyse everything yet, or it could be that it's just one of those irritating systems that insists on hiding everything from you. Obfuscation is never fun.

Opening the scroll titled 'Beginner's Guide to Water Ninjutsu', I can see a small blurb, some notes on converting chakra to water chakra and a sequence of techniques with effects and the method to perform them. Always best to read the blurb before getting into things.

"Water ninjutsu excels at controlling the battlefield and the flow of battle, via methods such as creating a mist, creating turbulence in water. It is weakest at dealing raw damage in a short amount of time but high-level techniques can take advantage of high water pressure to destroy targets. Water does not excel at any particular range but is most commonly used in a support role."

Handy enough, I suppose. I'm not going to know how it really functions in my team until I can actually work this though. The notes on conversion are fairly short but the brunt of it is that I need to convert non-elemental chakra to water chakra to use these techniques. There's a cost involved in converting chakra and the more efficient you are at converting from non-elemental to elemental, the lower you can get the chakra cost of the technique. Lower level elemental techniques don't require conversion but higher level techniques do and if you can convert them, they'll be more effective. Normal water can be substituted in an actual combat situation but that's dependant on actual water being around. I'll have to practice without using it.

The scroll says the first step to converting chakra is to understand the feel of the water chakra, which can be felt in any body of water with life in it. Moving my fingers down to the lake, the differences aren't immediately apparent. But after a moment, anyone would notice the difference in the solidness of the normal chakra and the water. The water lacks the tension and seems to be morphing and shifting much easier than the neutral chakra ever could. I guess the best way to describe the difference is to compare neutral chakra to clay and water to gel? Not really easy to communicate.

Still, I can move on to the next step. This is getting chakra and taking the water chakra we need out of it. Feeling through my own chakra, it's a mix. Some parts feel tense, some parts feel energetic, some feel sharp. But there's one stronger feeling that can be felt, the feeling of smooth, flowing water chakra.

Separating that part is hard though. Trying to break up the chakra and tear it from the rest results in some chakra slipping out of my control. Still, I'm managing to gather some water chakra together.

Takes a bit longer but I've got some water chakra separated now. Smooth, malleable and I can just tell that this has potential.

Now on to the next part...

* * *

><p>I will admit to feeling a bit tired this morning when waking up. I spent a good deal of yesterday getting practicing.<p>

Checking later revealed that Water Affinity had gone up to Rank C. That came with a point of much appreciated Agility, pushing me up to 12. I also picked up another skill called 'Chakra Conversion', sitting at rank D. I might be able to pick up more than one affinity, but that's getting ahead of myself.

I did actually spend most of yesterday on working on getting the water chakra out. It's still pretty slow and there's a lot of loss in the process. But I did spoil myself by trying a D-rank technique. It's just a minor little technique that shoots out a burst of water. Low pressure, but low cast times and low cost. Might have practical applications, I'm going to need a good spar to check things out.

Arriving at our usual meeting spot, Kiba, Akamaru and Hinata are already there. Hope I'm not late.

"Morning. I'm not late, am I?" I ask, waving.

"Hey, I don't think it's time yet." Kiba waves back.

"Good to hear. Kiba, do you have some spare time this evening?" I need a spar.

"Uh, I think so. Why?" Kiba asks.

"I could use a spar. You up for it?" The best option if he refuses would be to provoke him into it somehow...

"Yeah, I think I can. Where do you want to meet up?" Oh, it was that easy?

"Training Ground 3. You know where it is?" I have to ask.

"Eh, I can find it. I'll head there after we're dismissed." Kiba shrugs.

"It's cool, I'll take you there. It's a deal?" I offer a fist.

"Sure, sure." Then we bumped fists.

* * *

><p>"Not sure why you two felt like following us." I ask to Kurenai and Hinata who are following us to the spar.<p>

"W-Well, we just wanted to see how things would go..." Hinata replies.

"Is it really so troubling for a teacher and a teammate to want to see your spar? It's important to share things with your team." Kurenai responds, smiling.

"No, not really." I just wanted to preserve my pride in the case of a loss.

Arriving at the training ground, it's mostly empty. Guy and his team are here but they seem to be busy doing their own thing. Finding some flat, open ground, there's a few things I need to take care of first.

"How about this spar going on until one of us surrenders or is incapable of going on? I don't harbour ill-intent towards you but I do need something closer to an actual fight. I know there's more to a fight than speed." The academy system of 3 points, getting a point on each hit benefited me well. But a real fight would be different.

"Heh, sounds fine. We letting ninjutsu go on in this fight?" Kiba asks, a beastly grin starting to take place on his face.

"I wouldn't deny you it. Akamaru is free to join, if you will." I'm getting a little hyped up. A quick scan wouldn't hurt.

Kiba

Strength - 15

Perception - 10

Endurance - 13

Charisma - 12

Intelligence - 12

Agility - 16

Luck - 12

He's improved minorly, I think. And Akamaru is...?

Akamaru

Strength - 5

Perception - 11

Endurance - 7

Charisma - 9

Intelligence - 6

Agility - 17

Luck - 12

He is fairly young. Still, he's faster than most of the Rookie 9...

He'd be a Taijutsu centric fighter with Ninjutsu techniques to supplement himself in close quarters. Akamaru's there to allow the Inuzuka techniques to be used, no point going for him. I can't allow him to engage me in close combat on his terms and with Akamaru. Guess I'm going to be kicking a puppy today.

"Now you're just giving me a free win. Don't complain when I beat you down!" Kiba cracks his neck, looking perfectly confident.

"If we've come to an agreement, show me the strength of a dog and his pet human. Don't hold back." Fingers are together, and they flick towards me.

"Bring it." That's all I need to say.

Kiba charges forward, hoping to land a downwards punch from sheer surprise. He lunges forward, but I spin to his left and put my foot around his ankle. Pulling my foot around, he stumbles for a bit before landing a punch on my chest. I'm happy to respond by kneeing him in the gut. The punch stings a little but I think he took a much more critical blow.

Akamaru does land a bite on my right foot though, while I was recovering. I pick up the dog, my foot still stinging and throw him through the air at Kiba. I'm glad he's a small dog.

While Kiba stumbles to catch Akamaru, I beginning to go through some handseals and start preparing the one real offensive technique I know. Kiba catches Akamaru and sets him on the ground before charging at me again.

He's not quick enough to stop me blowing him down with a burst of water. The Water Burst Technique hits him once again in the gut, and he reels back a bit. I move forward quickly, and grab his arm. Grabbing a kunai from a pouch on my waist, I spin him around and hold the blade to his chest.

"I'd say this is my win, yeah?" That went by pretty quick.

"Wait, what?" Kiba asks before noticing the weapon in my hand.

"Ah, um, yeah. You win, I give up." He exhales, out of breath.

I let him go and put the knife back in my pocket. Kiba relaxes a bit before turning to me with a fierce head movement.

"Dude, what was that? Why did you have to go for my stomach twice? That hurts." ...I may have been a little brutal in retrospect.

"Sorry, but I did ask you to take this seriously. Consider it a compliment that I had to make a weak point and abuse it." I say, taking a step back.

"Right. Next time, can you make your 'compliment' a little less harsh?" Kiba seems irritated.

"I'll try to avoid kneeing you next time. You going to be alright?" I respond.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. But, sheesh. I wasn't expecting you to be so..." Kiba says, sitting down on the ground.

"That was surprisingly ruthless of you, Shoryuu." Kurenai says.

"It's not a bad thing, just watch how forceful you are with fellow Shinobi. And Kiba, I'm disappointed in you." Kurenai says, before taking Kiba off to the side, probably for a lecture.

"So... Did you enjoy the spar?" I ask to Hinata.

Hinata seems distracted by something else. Looking over, she's staring at Team Guy. More specifically, she's staring at Neji. And he's staring right back. I wave.

"You know that guy?" I've met Neji before. Only in passing but he's kind of a prick. Can't really stand him.

Hinata just nods. Neji continues to stare intensely.

Walking over, Lee and Guy are training again in something involving rocks. Asking would be dangerous. Tenten is off to the side, picking knives out of a post and implicitly not looking over in their direction.

"Hey, Tenten. You guys finish up early today?" They aren't usually here at this time. Otherwise I'd be checking in on them a lot more often.

"Yeah. Guy and Lee were going to do some special training and needed to finish up early. Don't ask." Tenten responds, not turning around and setting aside a shuriken.

"Still testing ranged weapons?" Funnily enough, I don't think I've ever gotten a weapons skill. Maybe it's because I needed to do more than the scheduled lessons at the academy?

"Yeah, there's a lot of different weapons I need to try. Were you looking into something?" Tenten finally turns to face me. She seems grumpy.

"Mm, could you tell Neji not to stare at Hinata. I think it's disturbing her." Tenten looks over and lets out a sigh.

"Sure, I'll tell him not to. But first, are you any good with weapons?" This is an odd question.

"Not in the least. Shuriken's and Kunai's were never my thing. Why do you ask?" Yes, the academy is nothing. If I expect nothing, I can impress myself with trash.

"I've just been trying to find someone to spar with. I wanted to get some practice against a weapons-user but I haven't been able to find any genin or chunin who want to spar." Makes sense to me since I haven't seen too many weapon-users in Konoha. I guess it's not a popular style here.

"Sounds like a pain. Any way I can help? I'm not a weapon user but I'm keen to try."

"There's a shinobi weapon store in town, near the Hyuuga grounds. Just look for a store with a Konoha mark on the front door. If you wanted to try learning a different weapon, you could pick something up from there. I mean, we could probably fix your problems with kunai and shuriken's if we wanted to...?" Tenten offers.

"No, I'll take a look later for something. Just remember to give Neji my message. Later." Waving goodbye, I head back to Hinata who's just sitting down on the ground.

One of these days, I'm just going to have to ask someone about all the new stores genin have access to. Couldn't keep weapons at the academy, you had to use the academy weapons to get any practice in. I guess it never hurt the clan kids but it was a lot of effort to try and get some time with them.

'Hey, Hinata. You want to head home? I've got business near the Hyuuga grounds and I need a guide." I ask, bending down.

"Okay..." Hinata seems down about something but she gets up any way.

* * *

><p>I saw a shop with the Konoha Insignia emblazoned on the door on my way to Hinata's place. I'd have never noticed if not for Tenten's directions. Maybe I'll go exploring and look out for any Konoha Insignia's like that. There's so much more to Konoha that I ever remember reading about.<p>

Arriving at the Hyuuga compound, I'll admit to being impressed. High, clean wall walls and an actual gate with guards. I thought the idea of guards for a clan residence was overkill but they had two Hyuuga guards looking all business-like. Past the gate, you can make out some houses and some degree of a garden with green life. You can smell the scent of tea from the compound as well, over the walls. I'll need to look into the local tea blends here. I used to care a lot more about tea before entering this world.

"This is the place, Hinata?" I ask, trying to ignore the feeling of my hackles rising.

"Y-Yes. Thank you, but I need to go." Hinata says before heading in. Right past the guards who are glaring at me for some reason. I guess they don't trust the random dark-skinned boy with the messy black hair talking to their heiress? It's not Kumo-level dark skin, more akin to Indian skin from back in our world. It's enough to get glares from the guards though, so I begin making my way back to the weapon store.

Knocking at the front door, I don't hear a response. Heading in, there's a small room with an empty counter and some seats. Behind the counter there's a closed door with the sound of someone walking to it. Just as I take a seat, a tired looking man with brown hair and beady eyes enters the room.

"Looking for a weapon, kid?" He asks, his voice steady.

"Yeah. I was referred here by a team mate of a friend. You sell weapons to genin, right?" I should check before it turns out I came to a poison shop or something.

"Yeah, you've got the right place. Close combat or a ranged set? How much experience do you have with weapons?" Good questions to ask, shopkeeper.

"Very little and do you have some sort of simple close combat weapon?" This is a bit embarrassing, but better to admit it now rather than ending up with some sort of bizarre chain or the like. The old man heads into the back before bringing back something wrapped in a cloth.

Handing over the cloth, I unwrap it to find a small straight edged dagger. This type of dagger seems to be more effective at stabbing things, if I'm to wager. The length of the blade is fairly short and it's about twice the length of my hand. The handle grip is made out of a hard wood and the blade is polished to a sheen that lets me see my own dark eyes in it.

"Is this a stabbing knife?" Gotta check.

"Yep. Don't feel like trusting an amateur with anything more complicated." The store owner crosses his large arms.

"It's good. How much?"

After paying the price and getting a handheld whetstone with a holster for the dagger, I say my farewells and begin heading back to my apartment.

My blindness is these past few years has really set me back. Still, I'm not too far from everyone else and if I keep this up, I'll be strong enough to survive the chunin exams. It'd be impossible for me to figure out how to get on the level of someone like Orochimaru within this time frame, but threats like him will need to be dealt with one day. When that day comes, I'll be glad I took every advantage I could.

Now, it's time I figure out the hardest part of the day. What am I going to eat for dinner...?

* * *

><p>I went to edit and I broke things. Oh well. I also learned that I had 1K words of the next chapter done.<p> 


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